Panchkula: As Covid cases rise, vaccination numbers swell

As Covid cases grew in December, Panchkula district administration ramped up its vaccination drive, jabbing around 80 per cent of its target population with the second dose by December 15. Of these, more than 70,000 people, or around six per cent of the district’s population, had received their vaccine doses in the last 10 days of the month itself, data provided by health department says.

As per data, while only around 70 per cent of the population had been vaccinated with the second dose by November 30, the number jumped to 80.15 per cent by December 15 and now to 98 per cent on Monday. The target population of the district is calculated as per standard central norm, which is 60 per cent of the total population. The target population of Panchkula, as per norms, is 4.8 lakh people, of which around 4.5 lakh people have now been fully vaccinated. Of total 40,000 population between the age groups of 15-18, 13,700 have also been jabbed since their vaccination opened up this year.

The health department, has taken several steps to increase the pace of vaccination and motivate people to come forward. But as the Haryana government rolled out orders and Covid cases grew, vaccination numbers swelled on their own.

The vaccination centres too were increased from 21 in November, to more than 50 in December as crowd swelled. Currently, all dispensaries, hospitals, CHCs, PHCs as well as mobile vans remain active to vaccinate people even till 10 pm.

“Our main focus is on the second dose. People are now coming out in huge numbers. Those, who had earlier remained hesitant are too coming out to get the jabs now. We had seen a similar phenomenon back during the time of second wave as well. People come out when cases rise and they fear getting infected,” said Dr Meenu Sasan, district immunisation officer.